On Wednesday, March 13, 2019, the Ukrainian Election Task Force, in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, held a panel discussion in Brussels on foreign interference efforts in Ukraine’s upcoming presidential election. Former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Founder & Chairman of Alliance of Democracies...

Five years ago in Kyiv, roughly 100 protestors, dubbed the “Heavenly Hundred,” made the ultimate sacrifice when they were gunned down while demonstrating against the corrupt, authoritarian government of Viktor Yanukovych. Soon after, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and Russian forces invaded and illegally annexed Crimea and then turned their sights to The Donbas. Nearly...

On February 7, 2019, Ukraine’s parliament introduced legislative amendments to ban citizens of the Russian Federation from acting as official observers in Ukraine’s elections. While the ban drew criticism (mostly from Russia), the Kremlin’s interference efforts in Ukraine’s election thus far create the distinct possibility that Russian observers in Ukraine may likely be Kremlin...

The war with Russia has shaped Ukraine’s internal politics for the last five years. Needless to say, this issue will guide in one way or another how Ukrainians vote as they weigh who among the presidential candidates can best stop or win the war in the east. Observers often formulate their answers to this...

Tomorrow, February 8, is the deadline for prospective candidates to file for the March 31 presidential election in Ukraine. So far, some three dozen applications have been approved by the Central Election Commission (CEC). As election day nears, Ukrainian officials and outside observers are sounding more warnings about Kremlin-driven attempts to interfere in the...

This survey was conducted by the Razumkov Centre’s Sociological Service in cooperation with the Democratic Initiatives Foundation from December 19-25, 2018. The sample consists of 2,017 respondents aged 18 and over, in all regions of Ukraine except Crimea and occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The sampling error does not exceed 2.3...

Over the past two weeks, Russian action and rhetoric have been heating up in an effort to apply greater pressure on Ukraine and discredit its upcoming elections, now a little more than two months away. First, on the rhetoric side– Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council, warned of the “loss of Ukraine’s statehood” if Ukraine...

On January 22, 2019, the Information Resistance group published photos of chemical containers “made in Ukraine” found in Syria. It seems to be another episode of the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine Ukraine’s international image in the lead-up to the elections by accusing Ukraine of violating international norms and non-proliferation regimes. There were numerous allegations...

On January 15-16, a court in Moscow, ordered all twenty-four Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia following the standoff in the Kerch Strait to be held in pre-trial detention until April 24, 2019. With this and other ongoing investigations, it appears that the Kremlin is using its judicial system as an instrument of hybrid warfare,...

With less than three months to go before Ukrainians head to the polls to cast their votes for president, the election campaign is heating up. A number of political figures have registered their candidacies, and more are expected to follow suit. Accompanying ramped up election activity in Ukraine is an increase in unwanted Russian...